III. HOW TO SERVE THE LORD

1)Serving with our whole being—“Present your bodies”; “be transformed by the renewing of the mind”; “burning in spirit, serving the Lord as a slave” (Rom. 12:1, 2, 11). Our entire being is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. To serve the Lord with our whole being means that the spirit, soul, and body all participate in the service to the Lord. First, we must present our bodies to the Lord; second, the mind, the main part of our soul, must be renewed and transformed; third, our spirit must be burning. Thus, all three parts of our being participate in serving the Lord.

2)Following the Lord—“If anyone serves Me [the Lord Jesus], let him follow Me; and where I am, there also shall My servant be” (John 12:26). In order to serve the Lord, we must follow the Lord. Those who serve the Lord must take the way which He took. We need to follow the Lord wherever He moves. Where He is, there we also must be. He chose the cross and was willing to take the way of the cross, dying to Himself and to everything. We who follow the Lord must do the same. Thus we will be able to serve Him.

3)According to the counsel of God—“For David indeed, when he had served his own generation by the counsel of God…” (Acts 13:36). Our service to the Lord, like David’s, must be according to the counsel of God and in God’s counsel.

4)Needing to have an ear to hear—“And his master shall bore his ear through…and he shall serve him for ever” (Exo. 21:6). This says that, in the Old Testament, a master would bore the ear of one who desired to serve, signifying a dealing with his ears that he might be obedient and submissive. To serve the Lord today, we also need the Lord’s dealing that we may have the ears to hear and be persons who are obedient and submissive to the Lord.

5)Coming near to and standing before the Lord— “They [the priests] shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me…” (Ezek. 44:15). This verse says that the priests of the Old Testament served God by coming near to God and standing before Him. In order to serve the Lord today, we should do the same. With an ear that can hear the Lord’s word, we still must draw near to Him and stand before Him that we may know what the Lord wants us to do so that we can serve Him according to His desire.

6)Being faithful and prudent—“Who then is the faithful and prudent slave, whom the master has set over his household” (Matt. 24:45). As the Lord’s slaves who serve Him, we also need to be faithful and prudent. To be faithful is to not be slothful or loose, while to be prudent is to seize the opportunity to accurately complete all the things with which the Lord has commissioned us according to His will. This is a prerequisite for us who desire to serve the Lord, to be well-pleasing to Him, and to be rewarded at His coming back.

7)Having the loins girded, and the lamps burning, and waiting for the Lord’s coming—“Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning…looking for their own lord…when he comes…” (Luke 12:35-36). Here the Lord tells us that to serve Him as His slaves, we need to have our loins girded and our lamps burning, and we need to wait for His return. To have our loins girded means to not be loose, to have the lamps burning is to live in the light, and to wait for the Lord’s return is to be watchful. All these are essential qualifications for us who serve the Lord.

8)Coordinating in the Body—“For also the body [of Christ] is not one member but many…If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, even as He willed…But now the members are many, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you; or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:14-21). Here we are shown that to serve the Lord as members of the Body of Christ, we must coordinate with the saints and not act independently in the Body of Christ, which is the church. This is also a qualification regarding how we should serve the Lord.

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About Living Stream Ministry

Living Stream Ministry publishes the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, providing the authoritative and definitive collections of treasures from these two servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. The writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee focus on the enjoyment of the divine life, which all the believers possess, and on the building up of the church, the goal of God's work with man in this age.